There was a 61% percent increase in the number of passengers travelling through Jersey Airport last year, compared to 2020.

670,693 air passengers were recorded in total throughout 2021, compared to 416,369 the year before.

That is still down 39% on 2019 figures.

Matt Thomas, CEO of Ports of Jersey, says they were starting to 'build back' in the second half of last year;

"Our recovery was 20% faster than the UK, which is phenomenal when you think about it."

The busiest day of the year at Jersey Airport was Saturday 28 August.

73,000 people travelled through the airport in December, compared to 9,000 in that month a year earlier.

Mr Thomas is hopeful of more progress this year:

"We replaced almost all of the routes that we lost through Flybe (which collapsed in February 2020). what we need to do now is build the capacity on those routes and fingers crossed we will be securing some more, if not for this summer then for next summer.

The demand is there, but some people are very confident and some people are more 'wait and see'.  It is fair to say that this year is going to be one of transition but then fingers crossed into 2023 we will be getting very close to pre-pandemic levels again."

Direct connections to Germany and Ireland will return this summer after a two year absence because of the pandemic.  

At the harbour, passenger numbers saw a 69% improvement on 2020, with 146,570 passengers travelling to and from the island by boat.

The Poole and Portsmouth routes during August, September and October outperformed 2019 levels by around 18%.